Cinderblock building
Photo by author
On March 21, 1959, two boys out squirrel-hunting with air rifles around Gambrills, MD, came across a patch of ground that appeared to have been freshly dug. Curious, they looked closer and poked around. They spotted what looked like a lock of blond hair.
“Someone’s buried here!” one of them shouted. “Let’s beat it!” Panicked, they ran to tell their parents.
The police set up an excavation detail. They dug with great care and uncovered the small corpse of a little girl. Although the body was nearly 100 miles from where Carroll and Janet had been dumped, they suspected it could be the missing Susan Jackson.
They kept digging and soon came across evidence of another body buried under the girl. It was that of a woman. This, they believed, was Mildred. They took the decomposed corpses to the forensic pathologist for a thorough examination. Identification confirmed their hunch. The entire Jackson family had now been found. The reward for information reached $10,000.
Soon, it was clear that the killer’s motive had been sexual. Carroll and Janet had been quickly discarded. The real prize had been Mildred.
Her body bore a silk stocking knotted around the neck in an odd-looking harness. The stocking’s marks, while pronounced, were not entirely defined. Her knees were bruised. Investigators believed that she may have been told to engage in a sexual act that disgusted her—possibly oral sex—and perhaps had refused, so her killer had used a collar to make her do what he wanted. It appeared from bruises on her neck that she might have been hanged.
Mildred’s body was too decomposed for pathologists to offer a definitive opinion as to cause of death, but she’d been bludgeoned and her coat had been pulled over her head. Susan had been beaten to death with a blunt instrument, possibly a gun butt. She and Mildred had both died from aspiration of blood. There was no evidence of rape on either body.
After the bodies were removed, several detectives walked around the area to see if there were any dropped evidence, footprints, or some indication as to why the killer had brought his victims to this particular place. They located an empty building, and inside they found a red button that matched one missing from Mildred’s dress.
Cinderblock building
Photo by author
It seemed likely that the killer was familiar with the area, knew about this shack, and had brought his victims here for a clear predatory purpose. He then had killed them and buried them close by.
Investigators realized that this shack had been searched before. It was the one they’d found near where Margaret Harold had been killed two years ago. At the time, it had been filled with obscene photos. They’d thought they’d had a good lead at the time, but it had fizzled out. Now they wondered. Two murders involving sexual deviance so close to this building urged them to think again about that jazz musician.